I am a software engineer looking to start providing shopping cart integration and development services to eCommerce businesses but before I get started I want to validate that there is a need for this type of service.

If anyone can help me by answering the following questions for me it would be a great help.

1) Have you ever paid for anything like this?2) If so what is a typical (ballpark) budget for a project like this?3) Is this a high priority for you?4) What factors are the most / least important to you when deciding who to hire?5) What has been your biggest frustration with people providing services like this in the past?

Thanks in advance!

Kiwiheretic
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2014-03-02T16:44:42Z —
#2

I don't know if I would personally see the need for it as there are products like magneto, prestashop and woocommerce which do that already. So unless you are writing a niche product like say a shopping cart for Google app engine using Google wallet or something like that but then your target market will be much smaller.

Rubble
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2014-03-02T17:16:08Z —
#3

I don't know if I would personally see the need for it as there are products like magneto, prestashop and woocommerce which do that already.

I think he is talking about implementing shopping carts like magneto, prestashop and woocommerce into peoples websites.

Shopping carts are complicated to setup and the average user would have a problem. You have the styling and layout to modify as well as all the categories, products, postage etc.

I think there could be an opening but I do not know if you would find enough custom to make it a business.

kanadianbacon
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2014-03-02T17:19:50Z —
#4

Kiwiheretic said:

I don't know if I would personally see the need for it as there are products like magneto, prestashop and woocommerce which do that already. So unless you are writing a niche product like say a shopping cart for Google app engine using Google wallet or something like that but then your target market will be much smaller.

Let me clarify. By shopping cart integration I mean setting up an existing shopping cart like Shopify for someone and as for development services I was thinking along the lines of custom apps or themes for shopping carts like Shopify.

Thanks for the feedback.

technowonder
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2014-03-07T17:01:16Z —
#5

Businesses often want the likes of [Magento and [URL="http://www.shopify.com"]Shopify](http://magento.com/) but can be overwhelmed with the complexity of the set up. I've seen many posts on forums about how Magento is a real beast to get set up with the possibility of all these different plugins and things to be done to make it perform, I bet it is quite mind bogging for someone whos not a techy! :sick:

I think there is work for what you're offering but is this not already on offer through the likes of web development and design companies that offer the full site set up and custom design as a complete package?

You could try and get an idea of what these types of firms charge for a project and you'll have a better idea of where your pricing could be pitched at.

bluedreamer
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2014-03-08T09:04:00Z —
#6

kanadianbacon said:

Let me clarify. By shopping cart integration I mean setting up an existing shopping cart like Shopify for someone and as for development services I was thinking along the lines of custom apps or themes for shopping carts like Shopify.

There's always a demand for these sort of services, it's part and parcel of most web developers workloads

It's always worth looking outside of the popular cart systems. The likes of Shopify, Magento etc attract a lot of developers so there's a lot of competition for work unless you can provide something unique. Consider looking at other carts systems as well (there are hundreds of them) where competition may not be so fierce